Google announces the stroke of doom for publishers

Google has unveiled precisely the doomsday scenario that I’ve been warning publishers about.

Put simply, Google will do what ChatGPT can do, but it will also have access to the current web. When someone enters a query, they won’t get a list of websites to visit. They’ll get the answer to their question. There will be little or no reason to visit publisher websites as a result of a Google search, and that will cause traffic to tank.

What’s not clear to me at this point is how Google intends to save their ad business if they destroy traffic to the very pages that display those ads. But whatever they do, you can be sure it won’t be good news for publishers.

What can publishers do in response? Here are a few ideas.

1. Stop feeding Google current information so its answers aren’t as good as yours. I’m not sure that will work, since there’s almost no chance all publishers will do that, and it will also kill what little traffic you will still get from Google searches. But it is one option to consider.

2. Go back to print. Quit relying on revenue from digital content with digital ads, since that business model will be dying soon. Cede the online space to AI and create curated, beautiful publications on paper.

3. Create customized, walled-garden apps for niche audiences. But not just an app the way you might do one today. It will have to use AI, and will have to be able to deliver customized, personalized answers to users based on their queries.

4. This goes along with the previous idea. Build your own AI specifically for your niche, and make it better than Google’s — at least in your specific area of expertise. Good luck with that, but that is an option to consider.

About print, realize that AI will be coming for print publications as well. Imagine what will happen when I can get a fishing magazine that’s customized to me. E.g., “I fish from a kayak in the Severn River near Little Round Bay. Sometimes I fish near the bay bridge. Create a custom weekly magazine, and I only want it delivered between May and September.”

And again, the same could be done in an app. I don’t want to know about fishing conditions in Lake Ponchartrain, or tide tables in Virginia. I want to know exactly what I need, when I need it.

That’s the future of publishing. If you want to stay in the game, you’re going to have to figure that out.

Sources
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Google is About To Turn The Online Publishing Industry Upside Down
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/11/google-is-about-to-drop-a-nuclear-bomb-on-the-online-publishing-industry/?sh=1fa803483faa